WATER FOR ALL, BUT NOT FOR FREE by Fardah Assegaf

     Phnom Penh, Feb 25, 2003 (ANTARA) - Mrs Lan Tang Hok, 43, can start saving money to buy more food for her seven children since piped water from the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PWSA) has reached her home.         Lan Tang Hok, who lives in the Pra You Vong slum area in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, used to pay 1,000 riels a day for water she bought from private water vendors.         Nowadays, she spends only about 5,000 riels per month for the water supplied by the PWSA, since the water authority has expanded its services to the poor neighborhood.

        This means that she can start saving about 25,000 riels per month, quite a lot for her family, because her husband, a taxi driver, earns only a meager 5,000 riels -- less than US$ 2 -- a day. (US$ 1 = about 3,800 riels)
        The Cambodian housewife is one of very few lucky poor people who can enjoy water services from the PWSA, which is much cheaper than water sold by vendors.
        In many developing countries, the poor always have to pay vendors more for water, often ten times as much as the rich. This is because the poor are often forgotten and are given the least priority in terms of access to piped water service. The rich in contrast, always get the privileges of almost all government-run services, such as electricity and piped water.
        Meanwhile, the very poor, who cannot afford clean water at all, often die prematurely due to the unsafe water they consume. Waterborne diseases cause more than a billion episodes of illness a year, with more than 3 million deaths annually from water-related diseases -- more than 2 million of them children.
        Steve Iddings of the World Health Organization (WHO) told participants of the Workshop for Journalists on Water Policy Issues in East Asia in Phnom Penh last Feb 16, that more than 2 million people, 90 percent of whom are children, have died of diarrhea from consuming contaminated water.
        The poor, especially the children, are most vulnerable to water-related diseases. They spend up to 20 percent of their income just on water, yet it still might not be safe for consumption. It needs behavioral change to ensure that water is safe and clean, he added.
        Water and Poverty
        The 3rd World Water Forum (WWF) to be held in Japan this March, will take water and poverty as its central theme. The forum will focus on water action around the world to achieve water security in the 21st century.
        The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has led a Water and Poverty Initiative by promoting a policy of greater access of water in a sustainable way to the poor.
        Wouter T Linklaen Arriens, lead water resource specialist of the ADB, who also spoke in the workshop, said that two out of three people in the world will face water shortage by 2025, and 1.1 billion people will lack access to safe water supply.
        In Asia alone, 1.3 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, and more than 40 percent of the urban poor does not have piped water at home.
        In many developing countries, their national poverty reduction strategies unfortunately do not talk about water at all. It is a weakness of water people that they talk only to fellow water people. Water issues are dealt with in a fragmented approach and there is lack of coordination because each agency has handled its projects in isolation, said Arriens.
        The ADB has identified six key result areas for action to improve water security for the poor -- among them strengthening water governance through better water policies, increasing the poor's access to water services, such as drinking water supply, and increasing investments in water-using sectors that generate income for poor communities.
        Economic good
        In the past, water used to be treated as a social good that most people took it for granted when using it without considering either its conservation or its economic value. However, those happy days are gone, although under the international human rights law, water is implicitly and explicitly protected as a human right.
        Water is currently a socially vital economic good, according to Arriens. It is more important than oil or gold. Poverty cannot be reduced unless people understand the importance of water in development, said the World Bank Institute.
        During the past century, as world population tripled, the aggregate use of water has increased six-fold. By the year 2025, 48 countries are expected to face water shortage, affecting more than 2.8 billion people, while the demand for water will exceed supply by 56 percent.
        If the wars of the 20th century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water, said Ismail Serageldin of the World Bank in 1995, referring to global water scarcity.
        The 2nd World Water Forum (WWF) and the United Nations Millennium Declaration have set water targets of reducing by one-half the proportion of people without sustainable access to adequate quantities of affordable and safe water by the year 2015, and providing water, sanitation and hygiene for all by 2025.
        However, extension of water services, including for irrigation and dams, needs huge investments, which many governments in the Asian region do not have. To meet the needs just for drinking water and sanitation, the investment required is estimated to be close to US$ 23 billion a year.
        The ADB has provided US$ 17 billion in loan, or about 20 percent of its total loans, for water investment. The biggest shares of the loan go to Indonesia, China and India.
        Considering the large cost and management skills required in water projects, the participation of the private sector is necessary, but it needs strong regulations for public protection. Water is a sensitive issue, Arriens stated.
        He explained that the ADB promotes participation of the private sector, but not the privatization of water. The government must retain the rights to water and consider the people's paying capacity. Water cannot be privatized. Privatization of water is a wrong concept, he stressed.
        The World Bank and ADB, two funding agencies which help many developing countries in terms of water project investments, promote cost recovery, which includes proper pricing, to ensure loan repayment and water conservation.
        By asking people to pay, they will be more aware of the value of water, prompting them to conserve water and use it economically.
        If the price of water is lower than the cost of providing those services, consumers will not be aware of the value of water, resulting in wastage and water misuse.
        Water supply and sanitation sector reform is also recommended, which includes improvements in management systems, the establishment of regulatory frameworks, and re-thinking the way tariffs are structured. In deciding the tariffs, there is potential for cross-subsidizing the poor, by charging some consumers less.
        The message is clear -- yes, it is water for all, but it is not free of charge! (t/Fardah Assegaf/f001/h-cvl/FN1) 25/02/03 12:47/